Chauncey mayor sues own village over injury

The mayor of Chauncey is suing Chauncey, adding more discord to government affairs in the southeastern Ohio village of about 1,000 residents.

The mayor of Chauncey is suing Chauncey, adding more discord to government affairs in the southeastern Ohio village of about 1,000 residents.

Mayor Ginger Mender filed a personal-injury lawsuit Tuesday in Athens County Common Pleas Court claiming she hurt herself when she fell in a hole or rut in an ill-maintained alley on Oct. 29, 2006. She is seeking more than $50,000 in combined compensatory and punitive damages. Mender filed the lawsuit one day before the expiration of Ohio's two-year statute of limitations on personal-injury cases.

"It is unusual," said village Solicitor R.J. Shostak.

In the meantime, dissension has mounted between the mayor and the Village Council. The council was scheduled to meet last night to discuss possible litigation against the mayor.

The six council members signed a letter earlier this month demanding the mayor's resignation. Among other things, council members claimed the mayor called them "SOBs," used "the F-word and other vulgarities in a public meeting," used more than 20,000 minutes in four months on her village-issued cell phone and exceeded her text-message limit, sending 1,200 in a month.

The council members also claimed the mayor ordered the village water clerk to restore her water after she was cut off for nonpayment and encouraged other villagers to "adjust" their own water bills.

"Your transgressions multiply with each passing day," council members told the mayor, demanding her immediate resignation.

Mender, who began a four-year term in January after being elected in November, said she plans to stay in the office to which the people elected her.

She said she has done nothing wrong, except use some colorful language and chat on the cell phone.

"I did cuss one time at a meeting," she said, "and I do talk a lot."

Even so, she said, the council has never set any policy or limit regarding use of the cell phone and never showed her bills for the phone, which has since been taken from her. The mayor said she never misused it.

"It was primarily for village business," she said.

Mender refused to comment on the lawsuit she filed this week, which names as co-defendants two former village officials and a property owner accused of badly maintaining the alley at issue.

The solicitor said he will forward the lawsuit to the lawyer for the insurance consortium to which the village belongs.

The lawsuit left council members asking why the mayor filed it.

"The other things going on between the mayor and council make me suspicious. Why now?" asked Councilman Shawn King yesterday.